Local solar industry cashes in on higher demand from Japan

The consolidated sales of Taiwanese solar cell manufacturers generally grew last month from a year earlier on the back of rising orders from foreign importers, market analysts said on Friday.

Japanese buyers, emboldened by their government’s support for renewable energy development, rushed to place orders with Taiwanese solar cell suppliers while US and European markets remained solid, helping boost shipments.

E-Ton Solar Tech Co (益通), one of Taiwan’s leading solar cell manufacturers, saw sales rise 21.37 percent to NT$345 million (US$11.70 million) last month from NT$284 million in August, the highest month-on-month sales growth of any of its local peers.

The figure was also up 191 percent from a year earlier.

Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) said its consolidated sales rose 3.02 percent last month from August and 124 percent from a year earlier to NT$2.31 billion.

Motech said Japan accounted for 40 percent of its total sales and the US about 30 percent, adding that its production lines in Hokkaido have been almost fully booked on strong demand from Japan.

Also riding the wave of increasing demand, Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) said it had consolidated sales of NT$1.16 billion last month, up 2.8 percent month-on-month and 226 percent year-on-year.

Analysts have attributed much of the sales gains made by local solar cell suppliers this year to significant increases in prices rather than volume.

However, the growth last month, coming after a mild correction in prices, clearly reflected higher overseas demand, which should result in a good fourth quarter for solar cell makers and more stable product prices during the period.

One of the few Taiwanese firms in the sector which did not benefit from rising demand in the month was wafer supplier Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美晶). Its consolidated sales for the month fell 17 percent month-on-month to about NT$1.9 billion.